Alaska Airmen’s Memorial under construction in the Valley

WASILLA — If you’ve ever been to Homer you’ve probably seen a memorial to Alaskans lost at sea.

In Anchorage, there is a monument to law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

But a group of Wolf Lake-area residents think the monument they’re creating might be a first for Alaska — a memorial to pilots and passengers killed in airplane crashes.

They’re calling it the Alaska Airmen’s Memorial and if it is indeed the first of its kind, the monument is long overdue in a state where planes crash and pilots and passengers die with startling frequency.

John Glass, a pilot, Wolf Lake resident and former chief of the Wasilla Police Department who reached the office of deputy commissioner before he retired from the Alaska State Troopers, is among the group putting the memorial together.

Touring the grounds Thursday afternoon, there wasn’t a whole lot to see; plywood forms in the dirt waiting the pouring of concrete. But come Sunday, when the dedication is planned, everything will hopefully be in place.

The memorial is planned to take the shape of an airplane. There will be an arch on each wing and a flagpole in the tail section. The wings will serve as walking paths. Flowers on the grounds will constitute a memorial garden. An obelisk will display plaques memorializing downed airmen.

On the ground, the shape of the airplane might not be all that apparent. But the memorial isn’t just for those on the ground.

“If you’re up above it, it will really show up,” Glass said.

There are already three men who will be honored there — “Wild Bill” Michel, John Eschleman and Paul Quartly.

In fact, it was the deaths of those three men that started the memorial idea rolling. On Aug. 1, 2010, with Michel as pilot and Eshleman as co-pilot and Quartly as load-master, the three men took off from Wolf Lake Airport in Michel’s C-123 cargo plane carrying a 12,000-pound generator for the town of Unalakleet.

The plane never made it, crashing in Denali National Park.

“A catastrophic mechanical event occurred involving the left prop, and despite the talent in the cockpit and favorable weather, the crew was unable to complete an emergency approach to McKinley Airstrip and went down in a stall,” reads a plaque that will be affixed to a boulder at the memorial.

Soon after the cargo plane crashed, the wives and friends of those three men started talking about a proper way to honor them. The memorial idea grew from there.

“Although the concept for this memorial was first envisioned by the wives of these aviators, it is their hope that this will be an enduring memorial to the brave and adventurous aviators from across this great state,” according to a press release announcing Sunday’s dedication.

It seems fair to say that without Eshleman the Wolf Lake Airport would not be what it is. The area is essentially a community of pilots. Hangars line the runway, many with homes attached. Nearby Wolf Lake is a base for floatplanes.

Eshleman owned Steppers Construction Co. Shortly before he died he took on the project to move Anchorage’s firefighters memorial, a $100,000 effort for which Eshleman didn’t take a dime. In 1998, he helped Glass get a memorial built to Bruce Heck, a trooper who died in a fight in Glennallen. That was another project Eshleman did for free. His wife, longtime physician Barbara Doty, said shortly after Eshleman’s death that he did free work for memorials all the time.

“John was just such a special guy,” Glass said.

Once the memorial is up, families who’ve lost loved ones in air accidents will be able to put a plaque on the obelisk. Glass said he’s still working out exactly how much a plaque will cost. He said $200 might be about right, to make the plaque, have it mounted and contribute to perpetual upkeep costs.

How exactly the upkeep will be taken care of, Glass said, is another thing the group still needs to work out. But they have some time yet.

“As long as there’s an Eshelman around, that’s not going to be a problem,” he said.

IF YOU GO

What: Dedication of Alaska Airmen’s Memorial.

Where: Wolf Lake Airport, 6382 Beechcraft Road.

When: 2 p.m., Sunday, July 31.

For more information, to donate money to the memorial project, or to find out about how to have a family member honored there, visit alaskaairmensmemorial.org.